Jingle Bells

"So, you've had a change of heart, huh?" Nini asks as she walks into his lavish penthouse and looking around.

"Sure, you could call it that." He says, closing the door behind her.

"You know, it's weird not seeing you in a business suit. I figured you'd be more of a button-up and jeans kind of guy, but t-shirts and sweats look good on you too." She widens her eyes, but then she sighs. "Why bother anymore?"

"Right. Anyway, I went out and bought all these Christmas decorations, but I need your eye to tell me what to do with them."

Nini peeks in all the shopping bags, then looks at the huge tree already set up by the window. "Tacky. Excellent."

He blinks, looking at her expectantly.

"Right. Well, we can't even start without getting in the Christmas mood."

"The mood?"

"The mood."

He raises an eyebrow and she walks over to the flat screen against the wall. She grabs the remote, turns it on, and flips to the Christmas music channel and blasting the volume. Then, she dances over to the kitchen, humming along to the song, and grabs the hot chocolate mix and candy canes out of the shopping bags. She makes them both a mug of hot cocoa, complete with a candy cane and marshmallows in each cup.

"Now, we're in the mood." She says, sipping her hot chocolate. He rolls his eyes and takes a sip of his.

Her hot chocolate is the best he's ever had, not that he'll ever tell her that.

"Alright, let's start with the lights." She sets her mug on the counter, and he sets his next to it. "I'm thinking we hang them around this whole room, around the wall."

She points around the room as she talks, and he nods, grabbing the lights and climbing the already set up ladder.

"So, who're you trying to impress with all this stuff? Since clearly it's not your thing. You don't have your own 'Santa baby', do you?" He can just see her wriggling her eyebrows behind him.

"Like you said, I had a change of heart."

"Okay, but like... the truth."

"That is the truth!"

"Mhmm," she says doubtfully.

"Oh, go... decorate the tree or something," he tells her, rolling his eyes.

"Aye aye, Captain."

He closes his eyes and sighs before opening them back up and continuing his work. After he finishes hanging the lights, Nini instructs him to deck his halls with the boughs of holly he bought (she doesn't trust herself to do it anymore). And off to work he goes again.

"You know," Nini calls from his living room. "It's kinda fun bossing you around for once. I feel so powerful."

He rolls his eyes. Again.

They work in silence for a while, with nothing but the blaring Christmas carols between them.

He doesn't like it. (He totally does).

When he finishes the holly, she immediately sends him off with the mistletoe, telling him to hang it wherever he pleases.

He hangs one in the front doorway, one in the kitchen, and- oh, he's gonna regret this- one in the middle of the living room, in front of the tree.

"Alright, now what?" He asks when he's done.

"Now, you put the star on top of the tree, while I go jingle your bells."

Another raise of the eyebrows, and another wide-eyed pause. The poor girl closes her eyes and counts to three slowly before walking off, jingle bells in hand.

He realizes that he never gave her a tour, but she seems to be finding her way around his apartment just fine.

Maybe if her red sweats didn't have Santa Baby in big white letters across her butt he wouldn't be so freaking turned on by that.

He sighs and climbs the ladder with the tacky light-up star in hand. After five minutes of positioning and repositioning the dumb thing, he finally manages to place it perfectly on top of the tree. He climbs down just as Nini returns from down the hall.

"Now, we've gotta wrap the rest of the tinsel around your railing on your staircase and up there." She points to the railing where the second floor overlooks the living room. "And then we're done!"

She drinks down the rest of her hot cocoa and puts her empty mug in the sink next to his.

"Then we're done?"

"Mhmm. You'll be so christmas-y, even Santa will be impressed."

"Perfect."

Together, they make their way up the stairs, wrapping the tinsel around the railing as they go. After dropping it down to the living room about seven times trying to wrap it around the upstairs railing, Nini finally finishes the last bit of decorations.

"Done!" She exclaims, grinning surveying their work from where they stand upstairs.

"Thanks for the help."

"Of course. Christmas is kinda my thing."

She walks down the stairs with a bounce in her step and he shakes his head, following her.

"Wait! We have to light the tree!"

"Right," he says, walking over and plugging in the lights. The tree bursts to life, the twinkling white lights reflecting off the ornaments and tinsel Nini so intricately decorated it with. The bright star on top is brighter than all of it, and Ricky can't help the smile that forms in his face as he stands next to Nini and looks at the tree.

"Well, you just look as holly as Saint Nick himself," she says with a grin, poking his side.

He rolls his eyes. "You're a dork."

He didn't mean for that to sound flirty. He shoves her lightly to counteract it. Why did he think that would work?

"I think you're a dork." She shoves him back.

"No, you're a dork." He shoves her again.

"No, you're a- "

He cuts her off by whacking her gently with a couch pillow.

"Hey!" She exclaims

She takes the pillow and grabs his shirt to keep him in place so she can hit him again, but neither of them realized how close they were until they were practically nose to nose.

They stare at each other for a few seconds. He can see about a million thoughts running through her head, and he'd be lying if he said he wasn't doing the same thing. He swallows and wonders just how unlucky he can be as he hesitantly glances up at the ceiling.

He looks back down at her, and her eyes snap to his right after.

"I'm just as unhappy about this as you are," he starts, "but I am a firm celebrator of- mmph!"

She cuts him off by pulling him down and kissing him, and his eyebrows shoot up as his eyes close in surprise. He rests his hand on the small of her back, and then his other hand follows, and then both of his arms are around her waist and pulling her as close as possible because he's kissing her.

He brings his right hand up to her cheek, rubbing his thumb softly along her cheekbone. She shivers and he feels her lips curve into a smile as she wraps her arms around his neck. He's not gonna lie and say that wasn't the best kiss he's ever had.

Eventually, they pull away and look at each other, once again with nothing between them but the forgotten Christmas music in the background.

Mistletoe hung where you can see, every couple tries to stop...
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